We thought that you had been at a party, what with your "lost weeks of May". (Where were you boy?)

BTW. I just noticed that one of the searches one can do on the memberlist, is to look up the top 10 posters. Unfortunately number 1 (Brazilian Dude) and number 4 (M. Henri Day) seem to have abandoned us.

"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."Anonymous

Perry wrote:We thought that you had been at a party, what with your "lost weeks of May". (Where were you boy?)

Well, you know, Maypoles and Beltaine... no, I wuz around, actually home in Asheville more than usual. Thing is, I usually stop by in response to an e-mail notification about a running post, and those seemed to dry up in that period. Not enough being talked about!

Perry wrote:BTW. I just noticed that one of the searches one can do on the memberlist, is to look up the top 10 posters. Unfortunately number 1 (Brazilian Dude) and number 4 (M. Henri Day) seem to have abandoned us.

Perry wrote:We thought that you had been at a party, what with your "lost weeks of May". (Where were you boy?)

off lack of topic, Perry employs here a usage that I've always found curious. Understood, but curious. So for the grammatical technicians among ye, what is the function of the word what in the phrase 'what with'?

Does its function have a name?
Whence came it?
Can this site diagram sentences (please say no)?

This probably belongs in the Grammar forum, what with the subdivisions we already have. But maybe nobody's interested... [/reverse psychology]

sluggo wrote:off lack of topic, Perry employs here a usage that I've always found curious. Understood, but curious. So for the grammatical technicians among ye, what is the function of the word what in the phrase 'what with'?

Does its function have a name?Whence came it?Can this site diagram sentences (please say no)?

It seems clausible that "what with" follows the same format as "what up".

-gailr
who can no longer remember sister marcella's sentence diagrams...

sluggo wrote:off lack of topic, Perry employs here a usage that I've always found curious. Understood, but curious. So for the grammatical technicians among ye, what is the function of the word what in the phrase 'what with'?

Does its function have a name?Whence came it?Can this site diagram sentences (please say no)?

It seems clausible that "what with" follows the same format as "what up".